King Croesus

This blog is about the KCCD2009 (King Croesus Contempt for Death) Trip and it's preparations. The journey will be performed on 2x 1939 Nimbus motorcycles with sidecars and ETD is April 2009. ETA is unknown, as you never know if it's a Sweet Chariot or an Infernal Machine you ride.

Tuesday, 23 March 2010

Travel route and support

We're currently in Huntsville, Alabama and heading on tomorrow. We'll be going down to Birmingham, New Orleans, Huston, Austin, Las Vegas and then to Los Angeles. This is pretty much the last fixed destinations for the trip in the USA. We'll be pushing on quite a bit and take pretty much the shortest possible way. If you're along the route and got a space for us to spend a night please contact me at tormod.amlien@gmail.com or write in the guest book.

Further, if you like this blog and would like to contribute financially to keep it running we appreciate donations which can be done via Pay-Pal on our front page. Or, you can buy t-shirts with our logo, exclusively designed by Kristal Melson in Singapore. T-shirts can be bought from our true supporter and helper Lee Bruns in South Dakota by mailing him at motopsycho@wat.midco.net. The price is USD20 incuded shipping in the US.

Catching fire and blowing head a gasket in Graceland.

From Bowling Green we were supposed to head straight down to my so to speak colleague, Guzzi-Doug in Alabama. However, my Danish friend and Nimbus-dude Fin Ohlendorf insisted we had to drop by Graceland to get some pics of the bikes outside Graceland.

As Fin’s biggest Hero is Elvis, and he’s said we’re heroes to him on par with Elvis I really had to take the detour. Besides, I really didn’t mind seeing the palace of the last true king.

The result of this detour was impeccable. My bike caught serious fire just before Memphis. I tore off my jacket to hold down the fire while Klaus managed to get a fire extinguisher that didn’t work. Luckily for me, but not for the jacket I managed to totally put out the fire with the jacket. After 10 years, 100 000 kilometers and about 25 countries, eaten by rats in India and facing temperatures from -25 to +55 centigrade it had to give in for a fire in America. Needless to say, it will be repaired rather than scrapped.

For the bike, we could still move on with the damages. When we somewhat delayed reached Memphis we didn’t get hold of the guy we were supposed to stay with. Luckily, thanks to Guzzi-Doug we found another guy, Grant, that took us in though it was late in the night.

In the morning we went to Graceland to get Fin’s pictures. As soon as we were outside Graceland it was clear my head gasket had blown, or rather my motorcycle’s head gasket. There were no other options than replacing it on the spot. Big thanks to Fin that forced us to this cursed place, and giving me the opportunity to be the worlds first person to replace a head gasket at Graceland.

The jacket had a bad day. The piece that was eaten off by Indian rats in 2006 was nothing in comparison. Funny enough, that too happened nearby a train, at Nagpur train station. Anyhow, now the jacket is 5 centimeters too short on the arms.

In Grant's garage, he took us in though we were not expected and called late in the night. That's the good spirit you often meet in the motorcycle community.I Grant's garage - han tog os ind selv om vi kom uventet og sent på natten. Det er den gode ånd man ofte møder i mc-sammenhæng.

The Graceland sign is in the background.Graceland skiltet ses i baggrunden.

Indiana and Kentucky

From Dale we headed west into Indiana, and south towards Kentucky. It was some rain, but a nice ride along the Ohio River, with small old villages and country roads. That day we planned to ride only 100 miles or so down to Louisville.

We found the way quite easily to Jaqui Van Ham and Stephen Pate’s place where we should stay for the night. Unfortunately, they were so nice that we ended up with staying for three nights. It’s terrible with this terribly nice people.

Jaqui has been touring Europe with her BMW R75/5 and tries to make a living from freelance writing about motorcycles and wine (good combination), while Stephen is a professional restorer of high-end classic bikes as Brough Superiors and Vincents. The Danish riff-raff finally got the chance to hang out with the British aristocracy.

Big Sid, the legendary Vincent tuner and his son Matthew also stay in Louisville and is a friend of Stephen so we also got the honor to visit him, and later have dinner with him and his son. Quite amazing to hear his stories from about Phil Irving and Rollie Free, which he both knew back in the day.

After Louisville the next stop was Bowling Green. As far as I can see the town is not too much of an attraction, but in this case there were a particular reason why we dropped by. The reason was to visit another true legend, the magician John Calvert. John is now 98 years, but still in quite good health. He used to do 60 feet jumps with Indian motorcycles in the thirties, he was a Hollywood star and actor, and even more an adventurer.

John travelled the world with his show using private airplanes, which he of course he flew himself. He had three DC3’s himself, and loads of smaller planes. Needless to say, he was also a friend of Howard Hughes. John survived several crashes, but none of them was when he was flying blindfolded like he occasionally did for show.

He also travelled the world with several yachts, the first one was Edsel Ford’s old yacht. He toured the world for many years with different yachts, and on went down several times but survived it all. He took his magic show to the most awkward places of the world, and even entertained Idi Amin in Uganda. According to John, every time he asked from a volunteer from the audience Idi went up himself, no one else was allowed. John did his shows with the threat of getting killed if he made a fool of him on the stage.

It’s not even any use in trying to get into his stories, it’s too many besides people don’t believe it unless they see the pictures. If you come across his biography it’s well worth reading, he’s certainly the most extreme adventurer I met personally.

The Danish riff-raff finally got the chance to swap paws with the British aristocracy. This Brough Superior SS100 is worth approximately worth 20 times as much as a Nimbus in similar condition. No wonder, the tank is chromeplated and it got dual exhausts.

Tammy, John's wife is Singaporean and left the island state in 1960 and has not been there since 1973. She's been traveling with John to most corners of the world as his side kick. She still got Singaporean accent though she escaped already back in the wild days in Singapore.

Klaus inspects his elephant rifle, a .375 that he used in Africa and shot about ten elephants with during the making of a film.Klaus inspicerer hans elefantbøsse, en .375'er som han brugte i Afrika. Han skød ti elefanter i forbindelse med en film der blev optaget.

Tammy and John out rowing with their leopards, they had 5 of them. Most of the stories about the man is hard to believe, good thing he's got pictures to back it all up.

NY-Pennsylvania-West Virginia-Ohio

The list of the places traveled wrapped up in one single entry might sound impressive, but it really isn’t. It was actually quite uneventful, at least when it comes to spectacular stories or breakdowns. Really nothing much to write a lot that interests the crowds, but for us it was some good and interesting days of travel.

We hit the road from NYC a bit later than intended, amazingly enough it was not our self to blame this time (I will not mention any names for your sake Eddie). Our plan for the day was to reach Gettysburg, PA to see the battlefields. The ever helpful Johnny Fox had contacted BattlefieldHarley Davidsonthat were expecting us, so we had to reach them before they closed for the day, which we did not. Meredith at the dealer had arranged a hotel room for us and left the confirmation at the door though, how sweet isn’t that?

The next day we dropped by them and met the very sweet Meredith, as well as the owner that gave us some gear we were short on. Amazing guys, and for sure the best designed HD outlet I’ve seen so far with a civil war theme.

John Boettcher showed up as well, he had taken a day off to ride with us again. I really should not mention John in this blog as it makes us look like motorcycle-sissies, but what can I do when he rides 250 miles in the morning when it rains cats and dogs, just to make a detour and ride with us when he’s got a day off.

The rest of the day it was pouring down, and it took less than two hours before I had swim-skin on my hands and it was fairly cold, but still we made it to Morgan Town, West Virginia. Soaking wet we got into a motel. We went to a restaurant and had dinner, which was on the house when they discovered that we were infamous world travelers, then went to the hotel and had a bit too much wine while talking bullshit until God knows when.

John Left us the next morning, and we rode to Cincinatti Ohio, to Dale’s place, a sidecar racer and Christina’s friend that put us up for the night, and everybody agreed it had been a nice trip.

Klaus doing field-adjustments of his mudguard. While we stood there a very nice Brasilian guy pulled over, asked if we needed help, and then donated 30 dollars and a bottle of wine. It restores some sort of faith in mankind when you're out there and experience things like this. Thanks a lot to the Brasilian, if you read this please contact me.

Hans Screiber, Sales and Marketing Director of Wyndham Gettysburg donated a very nice hotel room for the night. The best we've stayed in so far on the trip. "I had some spare beds for the night, so I could just as well give one to you as our contribution to the trip" he said. Thanks a lot Hans! If you're going to Gettysburg, check it out, a really nice hotel with good staff and facilities.

The infamous John Boettcher meets up again with the infamous Team KCCD. Here in the Gettysburg battle field where they ate corn and fighted until they were absolutely sick and tired of it during the civil war. Gettysburg is actually a place well worth a visit.

Dale and wife in Cincinatti took us in for the night, sidecar racers and friends of Christina Divigard. Next season he was going to use his daughter as monkey (sidecar passenger). Nice family doing a nice family sport!

Return to NYC

Our return to NYC had been awaited like the Jehovah Witnesses awaits the Armageddon, it was several times people thought we were on our way, but every time it didn’t seem to happen. Opposed to the Jehovah-guys though, it finally happened, though a bit later than expected.

The NYC Vinmoto gang, one of the tough gangs of NYC had arranged it all for us. The normal strong leader of the pack, Seth were out of town, but another dangerous and fierce character, the deputy Jason took charge and didn’t let us down. He arranged parking of bikes at Erik Green’s “Works Engineering” ( http://www.worksengineering.com/ ), a place to crash at Christina Divigard’s flat, as well as got out the word about our dramatic slide show at Bar Matchless ( http://www.barmatchless.com/ ).

Our program was tight, but we did all right. We had to explore Coney Island and look for George Tilyou’s ( http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/coney/peopleevents/pande04.html ) ghost after he had went underground with his amusement park, we had to catch up with old a new friends, do photo-shoots at essential locations, drop by cork screw guys at B&H and drivel our breasts wet, and not to mention doing the slide show at the Matchless.

Everything went smooth, very smooth. We had some hectic days, but managed to do most of the things we were supposed to do. As it wasn’t too much to write about I’ll rather post some pictures with captions to cover the happenings. Big thanks to Jason, Eddie, Christina, Erik G and all the other guys for making our stay memorable.

Erik Green and Works Eng. shares space with Oslo Coffee Roasters, in the heart of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. How sweet isn't it to find a coffee company with this name, that sponsors us with fresh roasted coffee. Thanks a lot dudes!

Old times and new times, the old docks around in the industrialized world get replaced with the multinational chains and shopping centers, in this case the Swede Mr Kamprad took over. At least he's not famous for wasting his money.

Sylvester Scneider was another friend we made in Montauk. He runs the Zum Schneider Bier Garten in Lower East Manhatten and invited us for some beer and food. Great guy and great place that often put up a good show. Well worth a visit for both food and drinks, seriously good selection and quality, check www.zumschneider.com . Here's Sylvester with his girlfriend.

At Zum Schneider

At B&H at 34th Street, amazing shop if you care about photo-stuff

Kerry forces Jennifer's bike to life before we went to harass Coney Island as a group of wild bikers. Not even Lee Marvin could done it better. Well, maybe he could.

At Coney Island, Jason, Bobby, Eddie, Kerrie and Kerrie's wife

Who's the freak?

The parachute jump tower, the only remains from Tilyou's Steeplechase park after he took it with him underground. To get the full and spectacular story check out Joseph Heller's "Closing Time", www.nytimes.com/books/98/02/15/home/heller-closing.html , where it's properly documented how he disappeared the entire park. Nobody can say this blog is not educating, though most information provided here is totally useless.

Klaus, Jennifer and Jason, for the occasion without the golden hide.

Eddie found a new use of his gloves

Thanks to Roy Mathisen from www.abm.no for pushing me countless times to do a photo session at Times Square, not sure if it happened without him. It got a few good shots that night. Also thanks to Jason and Eddie for the assistance.

Erik Green's Temple, the Works Engineering. A place with good karma!

Christina poses proudly with her new t-shirt from Gjovik Motor Service, www.gms-as.no ,one of Norways biggest Triumph dealers. Helping them with marketing on remote corners of the world with handing out t-shirts.

Jenn got back her flat and waved good bye to us, what a sweet woman, and also a good monkey in the sidecar racing. Races a BMW R75/5